Aquarion boosts water service to New Canaan customers

Martin B. Cassidy

Published 6:10 pm, Tuesday, July 30, 2013

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Next Tuesday Aquarion Water will complete a link to a new pump station meant to keep pace with the summer water demands of customers on the west side of New Canaan, officials said.

On the night of Aug. 6 crews will tie a water main on Lakeside Drive into a new $1.7 million pump station at the nearby North Stamford reservoir to benefit customers immediately over the Stamford border during the hottest months of the year, Mark Fois, Aquarion's project manager and senior engineer on the project said.

Scheduled from 9 p.m. and expected to last four hours, the work will link a main on Lakeside Drive to a pump station nearby to enable Aquarion to pump up to 1 million gallons of water a day through the main during peak demand periods during hot weather, Fois said.

"The pump station will boost water pressure traveling from the North Stamford reservoir to the New Canaan area but mostly to support the New Canaan area," Fois said. "The main driver for this is during the hottest times of the year when the water demand is at its peak we need a little bit more water on the New Canaan side." New Canaan Fire Chief Jack Hennessey said the work should increase the availability of water for fighting fires, and said the department has worked for years with Aquarion to advance projects to replace aging and fragile water infrastructure on New Canaan's west side.

"All year round we have water pressure problems on Ponus Ridge Road and we've been expecting them to build a pump station and put in some new water mains because we don't have a lot of pressure on that side of town," Hennessey said. "If it helps us out over there it would be great." Fois said that the pump station project could help improve water pressure for firefighting efforts, but that the new link was primarily needed to provide adequate water to western New Canaan for more routine uses.

"New water mains in western New Canaan falls under our company initiative to maintain and improve our infrastructure as it ages," Fois said. "The new pump station falls under maintaining our ability to deliver water in excess of the need to assure there is always an excess over demand." Fois said that customers should experience no change in water service during the night's work, and that the company will deploy an automated "Code Red" phone call on Friday to inform customers about the project.

As a precaution against possible temporary discoloration of tap water, Stamford customers are being advised to refrigerate some tap water ahead of time for drinking and cooking.

If unforeseen complications arise, Aquarion will issue an additional notification to customers in the area.

Aquarion Water Company is the public water supply company for more than 625,000 people in 47 cities and towns throughout Connecticut, as well as serving customers in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.